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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > June > 30
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
How about this NCR “For Sale” ad?
We have a winner! Earlier this month, we asked readers to write the “for sale” ad for NCR’s corporate headquarters. Two dozen of you took us up.
We liked Lorraine Russell’s submission best.
She wrote:
“First time offered! Surrounded by history. Skeletons in closet. Available with 1200 dedicated souls and countless ghosts. Owner offering pre-sale exorcism. Neighbors seek messiah or Indian chief w/experience preserving hallowed ground. Assistance provided in praying for new beginning. Don’t wait. Call your representative today for packaged deals!”
Lorraine, of Beavercreek, wins the original of this Mike Peters cartoon. She is a former employee of NCR who left the company in January.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: City of Dayton, Ellen Belcher, Local Business, Local History
Martin Gottlieb: Righter-than-right forces tug at local Republicans
If you were to judge by the headlines in Butler and Warren counties in this no-big-elections year, you might get the sense the real action in politics these days is on the political right.
The hard right. The righter-than-right right.
If, on the other hand, you have followed the national media all year, you know there’s been a lot of hand-wringing about whether the conservative movement has lost appeal beyond the Republican base and whether the party must move toward the center.
When some political people talk about the party’s base, they use the phrase “Southern, white males.” They’re exaggerating for effect, of course. Still, they might add the exurban Northerners, the people who live beyond the suburbs that surround a big city. John McCain beat Barack Obama by well over 2-1 in Warren County and by about 5-3 in Butler.
Person for person, the Republicans might not be any more conservative than anyplace else. But there are so few Democrats that conservative Republican incumbents worry more about challenges from more conservative Republicans than from Democrats.
The highest-profile political figure in Butler County, Sheriff Richard Jones, has considered a run for Congress. He took out papers for 2010, but eventually decided against running.
Now the highest-profile political figure in Warren County, Commissioner Michael Kilburn, is reported to be considering a run.
The adjacent counties are in different districts. Sheriff Jones would have been running against fellow Republican John Boehner, the incumbent, of West Chester. That’s the 8th District, which goes up the Indiana border from Butler, curls over Montgomery County and dips back down into Huber Heights and east Dayton.
Kilburn would be running against fellow Republican Jean Schmidt, another incumbent, of Loveland, outside Cincinnati. Her 2nd District mainly sprawls eastward from Cincinnati but also reaches up into Lebanon.
Both Kilburn and Jones have become visible by pushing — or pulling from the right — on national issues, despite holding county office.
For the sheriff, the issue has been illegal immigration, which he rails — and acts — against, winning favor from right-wing media outlets.
His activism predates this year. However, the talk of a congressional run surfaced this year, as conservative anger mounted about the general Obama direction.
For Kilburn, the big issue is federal spending. He got national attention for saying he’d let his county go broke before taking Obama’s “filthy” stimulus money.
Says fellow Warren County commissioner, Pat South, a Republican, about Kilburn, “I’m glad to see he is considering a run for Congress, where he can work to be part of the solution, rather than continuing to tear our commission meetings apart with his tirades.” Quite an endorsement.
Both of Kilburn’s fellow Republican commissioners show some pragmatic moderation. They agreed with him in rejecting one pot of stimulus money, but are accepting others.
Says Commissioner Dave Young, “I hate it. We wanted to give it back, but they won’t let us… If I turn the money aside, and it goes to Ashtabula County or whatever, I and 207,000 Warren County residents are still paying for it.”
Undoubtedly, though, Kilburn has received much positive feedback about his uncompromising position. The anti-stimulus, anti-Obama people include a passionate hard core that is all about being heard.
These high-profile uprisings are some sort of sign of the polarized times. After all, Boehner and Schmidt are seriously conservative. Move any farther to the right and you’re on talk radio.
Yet both have strayed from ideological purity. They voted for President George W. Bush’s $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry.
Boehner has never been seriously challenged by a Democrat. Schmidt, widely seen as a weak candidate, has been, but seems to have survived her roughest years.
She has many Republican critics, but few are likely to see Kilburn as a stronger candidate, given that some voters who are open to his views might not like the “filthy” talk.
One might argue that the Jones and Kilburn stories should not be taken seriously. In the end, both “candidacies” might prove to have been fleeting and weak. Still, for the moment, the report from southwestern Ohio is that the Republican move to the center is invisible.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Martin Gottlieb, Miami Valley Politics
Editorial: Strickland, Republicans play chicken
If an important principle were behind the bitter stalemate between Gov. Ted Strickland and Senate Republicans, maybe they could be forgiven for their inability to pass a budget.
But the disagreement about whether to allow electronic slot machines at Ohio’s seven horse racing tracks does not come down to principle.
The governor doesn’t really want to expand gambling even though he’s caved and is proposing allowing it. Senate President Bill Harris and most of his Republican caucus are against the idea, too.
In their hearts of hearts, the governor and President Harris agree with each other.
What the dispute really comes down to is a political calculation. Gov. Strickland doesn’t want to be alone in authorizing more gambling or to be the first to propose yet another $1 billion in cuts or tax hikes.
He’s saying to Sen. Harris: If you don’t want to get the money through gambling, then tell me what you want to do.
If there’s going to be more gambling, Sen. Harris does want that to be all the governor’s fault. And he’s not going to go first to call for tax hikes or bigger cuts.
Both sides are playing a transparent game of political chicken.
Moreover, even if the Senate were to go along with the governor’s brainstorm that slots can be adopted legally so long as they’re under the Lottery Commission, those who disagree are going to sue. They will argue that this move requires changing the constitution and a vote of the people.
The investors who would have to put up the money for their slot licenses and the hundreds and hundreds of machines that are being proposed will — if they’re smart — think twice about doing that until the last word has been heard in court.
That means it could take months before this argument is settled. For the governor to be counting on so much money from such a disputed idea is wishful thinking.
So how about we get on with making the hard decisions?
Gov. Strickland and Sen. Harris are both good men. One a minister, the other a Marine, they know about honor and duty. When their better angels are guiding them, they are precisely the kind of people you want making hard decisions.
Ohio is facing the most difficult situation it has faced in decades. Income tax revenues and sales tax revenues have fallen precipitously below projections, and there is no hope in sight, if only because the states’ economic fortunes always lag the national economy.
Not only is Ohio not out of the woods, we may not be into the darkest parts yet.
Turning race tracks into casinos is not the way out, and taking that tack — because decisions would be made so hurriedly — could put the state at a horrible disadvantage. The gambling industry can be counted on to exploit every unanticipated problem or loophole that works to its advantage.
Ohio has options: suspending the last installment of its 21-percent income tax cut; raising the cigarette tax; imposing a soft drink tax; increasing the sales tax temporarily; upping the commercial activity tax on business; eliminating tax exemptions; imposing more cuts.
Gov. Strickland and Sen. Harris are the two people who have to come together for Ohio. They have to stop posturing.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Ohio government, Ohio politics
